Main menu

Procrastination is thief of credit

A former article of mine (PUNCHING HOLES IN BOTTOMS) talked about the imminence of WhatsApp including VoIP calls in their service.

This has happened. It is no longer news that Whatsapp has finally, officially, joined the elite group of Instant Messaging (IM) apps with Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call capability.

While other apps (Skype, Viber, etc) have offered call ability for a while, the unique thing about Whatsapp is the ubiquity / sheer volume of the installed base. The fact that Whatsapp is also cross-platform gives it depth, as well as breadth. Additionally, with Whatsapp being a subsidiary of Facebook, things are even more interesting. I see a kind of collaboration eventually, that would allow Whatsapp and facebook users to be seen as a single pool of callers. Nothing would be able to touch the number, when (not if) that happens.

Photo courtesy – znexxt.blogspot.com

A network is as useful as the square of the nodes on that network. This is what gives Whatsapp awesome power. Chances are that most of your contacts already use Whatsapp. Or, make use of Facebook.

The beauty of voIP calls is that your call is routed through the intetnet. It therefore saves you tonnes of money, of you select that over conventional voice calls. With voIP calls, there is no difference in amount spent between international and local calls. The volume of data consumed for calls remains the same.

The main disadvantages are:

Both the receiver and caller get billed (via data charges) for all calls.

A stable data connection must be available at both ends for the call to be successful.

In case you wish to prohibit a particular contact from calling you via VOIP, but leave the chat channel open, you are out of luck.

Despite these shortcomings, perhaps it is time for you to stop procrastinating and place as many of your calls as possible through voip, rather than via the conventional method?

Little drops of water making a mighty ocean, you would get to save tonnes of money, long term.
From a rough calculation I made using Whatsapp, a call on whatsapp is minimally five to ten times cheaper than a conventional call in Nigeria . That’s nothing’s to sniff at.

Photo courtesy – news.en.softonic.com

Increased use of voIP is likely go punch serious holes in the finances of our Providers (conventional voice call revenues would progressively drop) . It is therefore possible, likely, that something would be done about the billing, generally, very soon

While that’s not yet the case, here, why not take advantage, strike this iron while it is still cold, and save yourself good money on calls?